September 05, 2005

Casual fortunes

I hadn't come across The Escapist before but it's an interesting read on the subject of (video) game development. I particularly enjoyed this article on the subject of why developing smaller, indie games is a better bet both financially and as a career than working for (say) EA.

If I went indie and worked for myself creating casual games:-

I could make two or three games each year instead of one every two years, for a cost of thousands, not millions.

I'd work alone or with a couple of others, not on giant teams rife with politics.

I could be my own boss, pick my own projects, own my own intellectual property, set my own hours, and do the marketing right, instead of coping with my idiot publisher.

I could do something weird and innovative instead of just tweaking ten-year-old gameplay, and reach an audience ten times as large.

My games might sell for years, not months, so I could actually polish them instead of shipping an untested beta in time for Christmas.

People might play my games obsessively for months or years, not blow through them in ten hours and move on.

And if I do absolutely everything right - which is under my own control - I could eventually earn two or three times my current salary. Or more. Personally.

Of course, these are all "could" and "might". But there's something in it, I think.

Mmm. In answer to both comments, I think there's an unstated assumption somewhere near the top of the article:-

If I'm young, without too many commitments and responsibilities, can afford to fail without it being a catastrophe, and have ideas for games in my head, then…

That rules me out several times over; I had perhaps half a dozen good ideas for games when I was 22; I haven't, as far as I remember, had any since (except a game based on the idea of making movies, which I see that bastard Peter Molyneaux has now shamelessly stolen from me).

05 Sep 2005, 22:24

Add a comment

You are not allowed to comment on this entry as it has restricted commenting permissions.